Identifying and Nurturing the Hidden Treasure of Leaders Within Your

Organization

Tim Ficker, Managing PrincipalTrilogy Consulting / Solutions Advisors Group

Judith Trumbo, Chief Executive OfficerVirginia Mennonite Retirement Community

Leadership Lessons Learned the Hard Way

Tim’s BackgroundYoung Life -The brutal honesty of teenagers…Erickson - thrust into the leadership challenge in John Erickson’s worldview…Shell Point and Cypress Cove – Recessions and Hurricanes…Consulting and Interim assignments – the laboratories of empirical evidence University Village

THE CHALLENGEIn 2017, Ziegler organization asked CEO’s in our field to name

the top concerns that keep them up at night…

The #1 cause of anxiety among our CEO’s is the anticipated retirement of roughly fifty percent of our CEO’s, Executive Directors, and Administrators in the next five years….

…in light of the comparably low number of future leaders who have been adequately prepared to step into their shoes. *

* (never before did this issue appear in the Top Ten)

Why?Why is this concern just now registering?

We have been distracted by a few other issues……Healthcare reform and its impact on

reimbursement,…a lagging Recession that drained the fuel of our

industry --- individuals’ assets,…the rise of the for-profit sector of our field,…the “Affiliation Anxiety” and the race for inclusion,

And…… “Strategic Planning” w/out the key strategic

ingredient…

A Failure of Leadership

The organization that fails to identify and develop the leadership talent existing within

is doomed to a perpetual and expensive cycle of replacement and rebuilding rather

than replenishment and renewal.

THE HIDDEN TREASURE WITHIN

Questions of a would-be prospector:• How will we know where to dig?• How will we discern the real deal vs. “fool’s gold”• How will we nurture the talent when found?• How will we get out of their way?• How will we repeat our success?

DIG WHERE THE GROUND IS DISTURBED

Where formal leadership is weak…• Pay attention to “troubled” departments• “Open” your door – don’t delegate to HR • Conduct Entrance Interviews

• Where formal is absent…• Step into void as the Acting formal Leader• Look, listen, and learn – don’t leap!• Wait, wait, and wait…

Discerning the Real Deal• “Natural” leaders show themselves in the voids

• They can’t help it!• Others follow them

Leader: a powerful person who controls or influences what other people do; a person who leads a group, organization, country, etc..

Webster• Controls or Influences…

• Informal leaders influence others, often without intention• If not obvious, take a poll: “If you were in charge and you could

choose only one other team member to get the job done, who would you choose?”

• Listen…without prejudice!

The Cost of Failure to Identify

1. They will lead – but are they leading in the rightdirection?

2. They will leave – and, eventually, others will follow

3. You will lose the confidence of your team

4. You will miss the high calling (and significant mutual enrichment) of mentoring a world-changer…

MINE for Talent• Through community connections

• United Way and Chamber of Commerce• Board work• Previous employment• Networks

• Beyond the “usual” suspects• Take a risk with other industries• ABC: Always Be Closing

Tools of the Development Trade

• Leadership Style Profiles: MBTI, DiSC for Leaders, StrengthsFinder 2.0, etc. (be careful to distinguish between selection and identification tools)

• Book Study – open to all

• Project/Task Force leadership

• Mentoring or Coaching (again, distinguish which…)

• Listen and learn about them: life challenges, mentors, hobbies, reading, successes in relationships, core values, etc. ….

TAKE ACTION: a case study

• “Steal” ideas from other industries/ colleagues

• Eagles• Choose high performers from across the organization• Identify a specific challenge/ metric• Assign a coach• Collect data• Develop a plan• Implement

The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.

- Harvey S. Firestone

Learning Agility

The ability and willingness to learn, change, and grow from experience and feedback, successes and

failures; the ability to form templates, models, maps, paradigms, and rules, from one set of

experiences and apply them effectively in other quite difference situations

Learning Agility in action…

1. What happened? (Data)

2. Why did it happen? (Rationale)

3. What did I learn from this?That confirmed my assumptions?That is new information? =“Learning Agility”

4. How might I apply each learning?Practice – ability to solve a problem where I have no prior knowledgeAttitude – failure is viewed as a learning experience

Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.

- Winston Churchill

A PATHWAY TO ORGANIZATIONAL LEADERSHIP• Individual Development Plans

• Identify/codify the signals of leadership• Alignment with mission and core values• Determine desire and passion• Opportunities to learn/develop talents and interests

• Education• Company projects/initiatives• Mentorship• Advancement opportunities (if any). If not???

Lencioni’s 5 Steps of Team Alignment

Conflict Resolution vs Conflict TransformationConflict Resolution Conflict Transformation

The key question How do we end somethingnot desired?

How do we end something destructive and build something desirable?

The focus Content-centered Relationship-centered

The purpose To achieve agreement and solution to the presenting problem

To promote constructive change processes, inclusive of, but not limited to, immediate solutions

The development of the process

It is embedded and built around the immediacy of the relationship where the symptoms of disruptionsappear

It envisions the presenting problem as an opportunity for response to symptoms and engagement of systems within which relationships are embedded

Time Frame The horizon is short-tem relief to pain, anxiety, and difficulties

The horizon for change is mid- to long-range and is intentionally crisis-responsive rather than crisis-driven

View of conflict Envisions the need to de-escalate conflict processes

Envisions conflict as an ecology that is relationally dynamic with ebb (conflict de-escalation to pursue constructive change) and flow (conflict escalation to pursue constructive change)

The Little Book of Conflict Transformation by John Paul Lederach

WHAT IS REQUIRED OF US?

• Create cultures of Trust, Courage, and Healthy Conflict

• Non-anxious, differentiated leadership• An Abundance mentality• A Commitment to people over programs• Investment in leadership development with a

“loose grip”• Know when to GO!!!

What are the Alternatives???

Q&A

Tim FickerManaging Principal -Trilogy Consulting

239.839.0534tim@trilogyconnect.com

Blog: www.theedgeofleadership@wordpress.com

Judith R. TrumboPresident/CEO –VMRC

jtrumbo@vmrc.org

Thank You!